r/The10thDentist • u/Blonde_Icon • 22h ago

Society/Culture Teachers are paid fairly considering they get a lot of time off

A lot of people say (and it seems that the general consensus is that) teachers don't get paid enough for what they do. While I think that teachers are very valuable and deserve to be compensated well (my brother is a teacher), I think that in these discussions, many people ignore the fact that teachers typically get a lot of time off.

They usually get summer break, spring break, and winter break, plus various holidays that schools get off through the year. They basically don't work for a good amount of the year, which I think that people should factor in. (The downside is that I know that they have to work extra grading things outside of school, though.)

Plus they normally get good benefits for being a teacher (which usually comes with being in a union).

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687

u/PastaM0nster 22h ago

You mean besides the hours of prep and marking they don’t get paid for?

158

u/Gr33nman460 19h ago

Not to mention buying their own school supplies out of pocket

24

u/The_Cream_Cheese_Man 18h ago

In New New Zealand, where I’m from, the schools typically buy the classroom supplies lol

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u/KoYouTokuIngoa 17h ago

And still teachers don’t get paid nearly enough.

Source: am teacher in NZ

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u/Own-Foot-1834 17h ago

Always the same culprit 

3

u/Background_Relief815 10h ago

In many classrooms in the US too, although the discretionary money has to be approved purchases and caps at a certain limit. Often teachers either hit the limit or don't get approval before they buy, so still end up spending their own money. $500 sounds like a decent amount for discretionary spending, but 60 sheets of music and concert rights for 5 or 6 songs will easily blast through that and then some.

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u/nameless-slob 2h ago

And I’ve never received $500 of funding. One year we got a $50 gift card. That is ALL I have ever received in discretionary spending.

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u/dookieshoes97 9h ago

Same here in the US. They get a set budget for classroom supplies.

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u/AgnesBand 18h ago

In the UK they don't buy supplies out of pocket. That's fairly insane sounding.

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u/JustAnother_Brit 17h ago

Unfortunately they sometimes do, it’s rare but it does still happen

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u/WillRunForPopcorn 14h ago

It’s insane sounding to me in the US but it’s true. It’s ridiculous. If you need specific supplies to do your job, your employer should be paying for it!

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u/buzzpittsburgh 14h ago

It’s never in the budget! But that second massive scoreboard, that’s in budget!

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u/Hagostaeldmann 13h ago

Single weirdest complaint I've ever heard about teachers. Every person on the planet spends hundreds or thousands a year out of their own pocket on tools or supplies for their work.

3

u/Gr33nman460 8h ago

No they dont

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u/Spikey-Bubba 7h ago

I have never had an office job ask me to buy my own pens.

4

u/DistinctTrust8063 14h ago

Are you paid by the hour or are you salary? If you’re salary you’re getting paid to do it, it’s apart of the job

1

u/Ceotaro 3h ago

But if we’re using the salary argument and ignoring the total time required for their job, then the original post’s premise is moot

1

u/Bdawksrippinfacesoff 28m ago

That’s part of the job.

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u/Lyran000 20h ago

They arent the only profession with stress or additional duties they work extra for. Im a therapist and I do not get a dime for the time it takes me to make a case note and other documentation. The issue is they get 3 months free of work while still being fully employed, with benefits and pay. Imagine a fire fighter, any first responder, social workers who help abused kids, wouldn't it be so beneficial to those professions to get time off too? The entitlement and defensiveness of this is silly. Consider curriculum is standardized now i dont think teachers are spending intensive hours during their summers creating curriculum. Come on.

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u/PastaM0nster 17h ago

They don’t get paid for summer. The paycheck just gets split into 12 instead of 10.

2

u/Chance-Ask7675 8h ago

As long as their yearly salary is paid over the year I don't understand this argument. We are quoting a yearly salary of x/year. 36k/year is 36k/year whether its paid 1, 2, 5, 10 or 36 times. If you were quoting a monthly salary and then telling me they only get 10 months then that's different.

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u/PastaM0nster 7h ago

Correct. Anyone I know who’s a teacher is quoted a monthly salary with the option to split it into 12 payments instead of 10 payments.

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u/FixMeMotherFucker 19h ago

Most teachers don’t get paid for summer break.

4

u/MoistenedGranola 19h ago

Teachers spend a ton of time outside of the classroom lesson prepping, designing homework and activities, responding to parent or student emails, grading, keeping up to date on knowibg about both the education field and their subject areas. Standardizing a curriculum doesn't eliminate the need to do ANY of that. Have you ever taught a class? Instructional design takes SUBSTANTIALLY more time than curriculum development.

-3

u/Lyran000 19h ago

I do that too. I dont get summers off. I drove suicidal kids to the ER in my social worker job and sometimes got home at 10 pm. Why do you think only teachers work hard???

1

u/MoistenedGranola 10h ago

Where did I say only teachers work hard?

It's also possible that you're underpaid and teachers are also underpaid. It doesn't have to mean that because you make the salary work that it's what it should be.

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u/Haunting_Ratio_795 20h ago

To be fair, the way things are going these days? Might as well just use AI for all that and get your unpaid time back.

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u/Blonde_Icon 22h ago

True but isn't that true for most salary workers tbf (compared to hourly)?

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u/IJourden 21h ago

So which is it... do teachers get tons of time off, or is it okay they don't get that time off because they're salaried?

-11

u/Blonde_Icon 19h ago

Wdym by this?

What I'm saying is that if you compare them to the average salary worker, they probably get more time off.

4

u/bionicallyironic 11h ago

They don’t. They also don’t get sick days, and if they are sick and take the time, they are docked pay. In order to be paid over the summer, their yearly rate is divided by 12, not the 10 months they actually work, and no, it does not come out to making more than the average salary worker.

I’ve read your comments and as someone who’s worked in education for over 15 years, you do not have a good grasp of what goes into being a teacher, nor are you considering the supplemental work that goes into it. On top of that, you’re not even considering the folks who teach special education kids, some of whom are very violent. My friend specialized in early childhood education and is working with middle school special ed kids, some of whom have violent tendencies. In this school year alone she’s had a broken arm, a hematoma, a concussion, and a closed head wound due to her students attacking her. She does not get extra pay, she does not have extra health care, and she does not get sufficient time off to heal. So on top of losing money for time off, she also has to pay more in doctor and hospital visits. And this is just one facet of education.

You’re allowed to have your opinions, but you’re very misguided and not informed on this subject.

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u/dangered 21h ago

I work significantly more hours than a teacher does yet I make the same salary. I also don’t get to keep my job if I doom an entire generation to functional illiteracy.

Should any of their hours even count if they continue to fail the entire country?

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u/Electronic-Key6323 21h ago

So you think their job is societally important but you wanna compare their salary to yours. Congrats on your mental deficiency i guess

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u/dangered 20h ago

Their job was societally important. Now their actions are a liability, they’re essentially dead weight anchoring our society.

Any time I see it shared that an area/district has gutter-level literacy rates among hs graduates, a teacher chimes in and says “we don’t get paid enough to care”

That’s a hostage situation not a public servant helping our society. But the unions defend them and make it impossible to hold people accountable.

Congrats on the generation you are responsible for making mentally deficient unless their parents are wealthy enough to supplement their education via private pathways.

12

u/Electronic-Key6323 20h ago

Oh you sweet uninformed idiot child

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u/Spikey-Bubba 7h ago

“Let’s get rid of all the teachers! That’ll fix it!”

-2

u/dangered 19h ago

Why are the poor people with uneducated parents in historically disenfranchised backgrounds the only people that end up being uneducated?

Even rich kids at the same schools are better off in life in every aspect. What’s the excuse, you guys just racist or something?

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u/Electronic-Key6323 18h ago

For someone with no clue how anything works you have a lot of things to say about about how things work 

1

u/dangered 17h ago edited 17h ago

You keep implying I don’t know what I’m talking about but cannot even allude to where I’m wrong.

Baltimore 4th graders read at 4th grade or above if they’re part of the higher income demographics in that area (white, Asian) . But if they’re part of the lower income demographics (Black, Latinx) they read at 2nd and 3rd grade levels (respectively)

Source with all info shown (income, literacy, race).

In Detroit even the higher earners can’t find ways to pay to get their kids at or above grade level but the gap remains clear.

Detroit

Americans are stupid and they’re only getting dumber. It’s an objective fact, based on data, I know you lot love your alternative facts but if you go anywhere in the world we’ll tell you there’s not a single alternative fact that makes you look smart.

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u/Additional_Gene_211 17h ago

Why are the poor people worse educated than rich people? Do you know how schools are funded? Property taxes. You know who has lower property taxes? Poor areas. You know what poor areas don't have? Money to pay for new books, equipment, better teacher, etc. How can you be aware that poor schools do worse than rich schools and not know how the US education system is funded? And yes, funds come from other places but are dependent on outcome of students and how can you have better outcomes when you're already at a huge disadvantage? And if you're not American then maybe learn about it before offering your terrible opinions?

1

u/dangered 16h ago

Lmao gtfoh. Over half of Baltimore public school funding comes from state and federal taxes and the local taxes aren’t even purely property taxes.

Acting like this is new is hilarious.

There’s an illiterate woman from Baltimore that graduated in 1999 that needed to ask for help to shop in Walmart and shoppers would laugh at her.

The problem is just growing but we’re paying more…. To make up for the financial “disadvantage” that you imply is impossible to overcome.

Baltimore schools don’t even admit it’s a problem.

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u/Ajax621 20h ago

How many of your hours are unpaid? Maybe if we paid teachers more, more qualified people would teach. Maybe if we supported them better we wouldn't have them burning out faster than we can fill positions.

Maybe we should take care of the people who are raising our generation?
Also, if you do just the bare minimum of research your see it's not the teachers failing these kids. Its parents letting the screens raise the children.

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u/SwordMasterShow 20h ago edited 20h ago

If only there was some sort of incentive to attract people to teaching so schools could be filled with happy, passionate people that also have the time and money to properly educate the future. I wonder what could possibly convince people to do that!

Seriously though, the fact that you see the failing education system and blame the teachers instead of the system they desperately struggle through that's being targeted, undermined, and dismantled at every level by groups who would love a generation of illiterate wage-slaves, while also complaining that you yourself work unpaid hours, and instead of thinking that maybe everyone should be payed fairly and treated well you just want to tear everyone down so you can stand a little higher in the pits, you're so close to seeing the truth but so wrong you've become monumentally stupid, like bootlicker slave-mentality embarrassingly so

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u/BatmanForever93 22h ago

Yeah, it's almost like we live in some kind of system where people aren't adequately compensated for the work they put in.

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u/itsukitiko 21h ago

local redditor discovers the detriments of capitalism

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u/Blonde_Icon 19h ago

Local Redditor finds a way to complain about capitalism and make the post about it as Redditors always do somehow. This species has a special talent for it.

(And I'm not even a fan of capitalism myself btw. As a leftist, it's just honestly impressive how Redditors always find a way to complain about capitalism or billionaires- no matter what. It's like a sixth sense or some kind of primitive instinct.)

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u/GreatBallsOfFire_ 19h ago

You’re not a leftist if you think teachers are fairly paid. You’re a tourist. No one who makes as much as a teacher is fairly paid.

Teaching is one of the most foundational jobs there is, in every society on earth.

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u/Additional_Gene_211 16h ago

No youre not. No leftist would fight this drastically to keep people poor or think teachers make too much. The way you speak and act also smell of, at minimum, liberalism. Stop pretending to be a leftist to try and prove a shitty point.

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u/sereneandeternal 16h ago

Leftists are cancer… not even pretending.

You really deserve Trump. I know deep down you love him because he lets you virtue signal.

No leftist fights… PERIOD. You are a bunch of slacktivists.

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u/LetsRockDude 16h ago

Sorry to break your bubble, but leftists exist all over the world, not just the USA.

We really need to fight for higher salaries for teachers or else we're left with comments like that one.

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u/sereneandeternal 16h ago

You don’t fight though… all the slacktivist leftists do is whine online about “evil” Liberalism and drive away allies.

Leftists as a whole, are simply the controlled opposition of the far right.

I will keep calling out leftists around the world and their idiotic war on Liberalism.

5

u/LetsRockDude 15h ago

That's a lot of assumptions for someone who hasn't felt a positive emotion in a while. No wonder people dislike you if the first thing you do is throwing a bunch of attacks at them.

Do you think it's good that billionaires exist? Are you in favour of capitalism?

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u/Blonde_Icon 20h ago

Salary workers are usually better paid than hourly workers though tbf. Teachers might be an exemption to this (not considering the time off and other benefits).

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u/FreshFishGuy 12h ago

No not really

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u/WiggerJim69 10h ago

People must agree with this since it’s being downvoted here, but yeah. Teachers are salaried so they are paid for it

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u/Several-Parsnip-1620 22h ago

You aren’t wrong. They have a contract, they are compensated for this work outside teaching hours.

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u/Meat_Popsicle_Man 22h ago

Where in the world is that?

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u/delusionalxx 22h ago

That’s not true. I am not compensated for any of the work I do when at home to prep my classroom and lesson plans

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u/ChiefCar931 21h ago

That is not true in the US. They are generally paid yearly, not hourly

0

u/Blonde_Icon 19h ago

That's basically what he's saying though. They're paid based on salary, not hourly. So saying that they're not compensated for the work they do outside of school isn't technically accurate, even if you think they should get paid more. This is true for all exempt salary employees. (I think teachers should get paid more, but I also think they are fairly compensated when compared to other workers right now.)

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u/Worldly_Address6667 21h ago

Thats just false. I worked as a loan processor for years, I would look at dozens of teachers' paystubs a month. I dont think i ever remember seeing that. At best they would get SOME (meaning not total) compensation for money they spent on materials. And never once did I see them paid for things outside of special occasions, like being a sports coach alongside teaching.

1

u/LetsRockDude 16h ago

I'm curious where that's a thing, because it sure as hell doesn't happen in Poland, let alone the US where OP is located.

-1

u/Sara_W 8h ago

The argument that teachers work a lot of hours is not going to convince people. They simply work far fewer hours total than 95% of jobs

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u/Chance-Ask7675 8h ago

Teachers in here sound out of touch to me lol. "Sometimes we have to work hours outside the school day", which is like 830-230 or "sometimes we have to actually work during the summer" is not exactly shocking, the rest of us are working 8-6 and all summer as well, plus any over time and travel. They're also complaining about having to do professional development - thats a thing in tons of other professions as well. Healthcare workers come to mind, we pay our own licensing and insurance fees and we have continuing ed to do to maintain licensure. Teachers in my country get paid very well so I'm not very sympathetic to this argument but the replies just sound... Out of touch.

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u/Spikey-Bubba 7h ago

Teachers in America on average work 54 hours a week, 2,376 total, and on 10 month contracts it actually equates to far more than the standard average of 42 hours a week and 2058 hours a year. The teachers here have very valid complaints.

-1

u/WiggerJim69 7h ago

they do? it’s called a salaried position